Mage Advice Please (in General)

I am considering a 4 minion strat that involves the vast majority of Exp and NW invested in defense, there is an Evasion wall, PL battery, lots of AC, AoIs, and even a ToE.

However, there are 4 minions, and one minion will be my CoC mage. This makes me extremely vulnerable to AMF, so I am considering not training Evasion and putting on a CoI, NS and low penalty equips, to maximize effective CoC and HP levels.

However is this even a viable options because of Mageseeker? Even with layers of damage reduction, the ToE and the 40% damage penalty in ranged, will there be any hope of the CoC mage surviving on a MCM and ToE as damage reduction?

Please tell me your experiences with mageseeker, how should I deal with it? Cause as I see it, it's is the biggest hole in my strat. *sigh* Maybe giant DBs are the only option.

My Armored CoC Mage can survive to Melee with Alpha 17.

Coincidentally enough he hits me about 17 times in ranged with his Mageseeker for 60k damage or so each time. So using PL like me is probably necessary.

Have you chatted with Little Devil about it.

He has a similiar strategy, but uses MM instead of CoC.

From my past experience with seeker arrows and mages, PL alone will not help vs mageseekers. But the NSC are a great counter to AMF.

With a 4 minion character, however, your level of DD spell will not be exceptionally high. That may be a problem with any DD spell you choose.

Yes, well the problem I run into after making it to melee, is that my CoC mage promptly kills herself due to AMF even with Noldorin Spellcasters because my DD level is not that high.

I'd just take the Mageseeker hit. Do what you can with a pair of DBs, but figure you have to be weak against SOME strat.

Do not start with 4 minions. Start with 2 or even single minion. That way you get the concentrated DD you need. Hire minions of PL/wall variety later on. Mageseekers do rather feeble damage imo with the right layers of reductions (read: do not let multihit happen). If you start single minion, evasion is definitely viable. The downside is of course, the massive amount of cash needed to hire minions.

Forgot to mention, I use a Mithril Cuirass. I use it mostly to help versus GA teams.

And the enemy I'm fighting has about a 20 mil NW Mageseeker not sure of the X & 500k strength.

Ice Cube: wow that's quite a bit of AC on your CoC mage, I don't think I am willing to go that far in terms of penalties, AMF will rip me apart. I'm surprised ToE isn't enough though, that kind of bothers me. About how many rounds does it take for you to self destruct?

Miteke: Yeah, I'm aware I can't beat everyone, but so far, that's the only biggest hole i can see, it's worth it to cover it as much as I can >.<

Ulord: When would be a good idea to hire? I dunno though, I spend much of my BA and hiring money on equips. Though I don't intend to start my char until a few months.

Ranger: Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. Just wondering, how much damage does higher up MgKs do?

600k or so against me , tattoo-less, tested out today :P
Boo Hoo

only 600k?!

With ToE and decent AC, a PL battery would be more than enough! Who's Mageseeker was it?

take a wild guess

LA, that kind of response is viable when there actually is a relatively obvious answer. But there are many MsKs in this game.

However, I'd guess it would be against G_Beee and his massive mage seeker

sorry about that. it was Ranger's . I will test G Bee bow right away. But his ELB is too big to see the MSK real damage I assume

8 / 9 / 478,722

Ranged damage vs Little Anthony.

Mageseeker damage is not that spectacular, but having to survive 5 rounds of it before you hit back is no joke... I would suggest starting with 2 then hire one more for as much as you are willing to spend. I guess you would be using Conundrum's strategy then. The last one will have to wait till you save up enough. You can wait till you have a reasonably big evasion that you are happy with, then hire the third minion since you no longer have to train evasion too much. Keep in mind that you have to choose between CoI vs. EC (NSC is pretty much indispensable). On the bright side, you can use EB/MCM and get to 200+ AC with a big MS.

Ulord: It's a good idea, but I don't think training evasion is the answer. I'm already bent on having an Evasion wall in my strat, so training evasion for the sole purpose of MgK seems inefficient imo.

Hp might be better if the damage is at this caliber, it'll help that much more against AMF. DBs are a necessity though probably aim to minimize to double hits.

The more I think about this strat the more expensive it looks >.<

You'll probably be fine on an MCM instead of an MC. Definitely, NSC and CoI. AoAC Cab Buckler might be fine. It certainly works for LA.

I self destruct in three rounds versus Alpha 17, but that is because this mage is a secondary damage dealer. Now that all my minions are hired I'm hoping it'll grow larger to the point were AMF won't be such a big deal.

Er I'm currently running that strat, but I started out with the 4 minions (oh well NUB run), so I have a RoE on the mage

it's evasion/DM wall - AS enchanter (will hold ToE) - purely CoC mage - PL battery
corn+elvens; corn, ToE; CoI,NS,mage armor; TSA MgS etc. (working on the equips)

I can survive the one guy on the fightlist that holds a MSK but that's a 4-minion team. The other guy that kills me with a MSK, hits near my PL range... but triple shots the battery into oblivion. The MM mage doesn't help either.

Oh lol ice cube you're the MSK guy on my fightlist :'P

I can't survive Alpha 17 without my ToE on, he triple shoots me 170k, PL takes only 108k. My ToE's 700k and that is 75% reduction to 42k? I'd win, he only gets 29% AMF on me.

I'm renting a Mageseeker now, but I can probably fit my real one under WA when it returns from rentals.

I have much less MPR which is why I can't survive his AMF. At higher levels I'm sure I'll be fine.